Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-04-30

oiobS~t SiNht IitAk III VIC SuIil1, us
sured and ragged, bathed in the rich
dyes of Mother Earth's mineral wealth.
A narrow winding chasm lies before
us, whose steep cliff, lap each other at
the base where a gllstening turbulent
thread OF "A river winds. The cliffs are
gorgeous with every color known, now
strongly contrasted now delica,ely
blended. Colors that are ever being
renewed by the mist that rises from
the falls, by the yapors that manate
from the earth. Here are greens
shading from delicate pale moss to
to the deep tones OF pines that
project down to the verge of
the river in points and ridges of
fringe; yellow pale and deep. shading
into pale green, and red from terra
Gotta to magenta and a blush purple.
At one point the mist that curls up the
palisades has favored the growth of
delicate green moss and lichen. Sur
mounting these rainbow cliffs is a forest
of pines. Along She smooth, steep
slopes of the cliffs castle like ctags and
plnnacles jut out, hanging over the
abvss below, and here and there the
ridge of a jutling cliff has a bristling
line OF pines extending from the top to
the river edge, while right up before us
rises Il huge tower of rock, an clong-
ated cone of dark purplish red, the
color and shape Of q bunch Of Sumach.
We took up our line of march again
presently and wandered On a little fur
Their TO a point called "Lookout,' Il
crag that reaches out over the prcci-
pice, from whence one can look back
on the falls. We waited until the moon
came out and added her silvery rays to
the general effect. But such beautiful
scenes cannot be described adequately
in words. When thoroughly stepped
in the loveliness and grandeur Of the
whole we scramble over that sharply
undulating path again TO the hotel;
there we left orders for the saddle
horses for the party to be ready at ) a.
IN. and went TO bed and 10 sleep forth
with.
We were awakened in the cold. fros-
ty darkness of early morning, and
hastily took coffee and rolls in the
pause of our hastv toilet, and then re-
paired TO the biz stove that stood Is the
center Of the office to wait for our
horses. We waited an hour. but no
horses came; finally it transpired that
the horses were always allowed to run
loose during the night, and had wan
dcred away and could not be found.
We concluded to walk, and started out
over the same hillv trail of the night
before past Point Lookout, and on some
three miles or more along the verge of
the conons to Inspiration Point, a crag
that stands far out over the canon
firm where one gets a still more eX-
tended view. Looking eastward, the
turbulent Yellowstone river winds
along the base Of the yellow cliffs, now
in full view, now disappearing behind
the jutting feet Of the palisades, until
where the cliffs overlap each other. On
this side the palisades have a smooth
slope up from the river and are wood
ed with green pines. Looking west
ward the comes tumbling toward Us
over several cascades after its great fall
further beyond, and after disappear
ance for some distance behing the
overlapping triangular cliffs, while far
above and beyond the upper fall
stretches a green forest of pine.
We have noted more than once, since
our entrance in this enchanted park,
places where streams of cold water and
basins and streams of hot water lie SO
close to one another thai Il sportsman
can, in very truth, catch the trout that
inhabits the one, and, without rising,
Sing his line over and cook it in the
water of the other. This sounds al
most as utopian as the story of chick
ems stalking around with knife and fork
sticking in them ready for eating, but
it is nevertheless true. However, the
visitor to the National Park soon real
ICES that fact is indeed stranger than
fiction" We stopped that night near
the Lower Geyser basin at a place
called Fire Hole. We should at another
time have gone to the Upper Geyser,
but at this time the hotel there is al
ready crowded, so we have been mott
fed, therefore we stop at Fire Hole, at
the worst hotel in the park. But here,
too, large establishments are in procecs
of construction, and in the coming sea-
son the traveller will be more comfort
ably housed than heretofore. At pres
ent the most fortunate people are two
in a room, and | am among the fortu-
nate. The building is a mere temper
ary one of lath and muslin, that shakes
at a movement. and through whispers
a be heard from end to end. as we
discover on retiring. Five or six men
are talking with rash ~frankness in the
next us, and across the hall two
women recount their conquests, while
from further up the corridor are waited
the angry words of a quarrelsome
pair. Latter we hear suppressed whis-
pering in n distant chamber, and when
that subsidies the breathing Of the
sleepers in the adjoining rooms, pune
tuated with OCCASIONS. shores, is dis
tinctly audible. Before the lights are
out one room is illuminated with the
rays from the next that penetrate the
muslin covered cracks. After they are
extinguished it seems like one large,
much-peopled room from the sounds.
fNbn cnr,,l ,f x.n,ooc ovid bncyr f,il.f